Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Erophila verna
Common name
Whitlow grass
Family
Brassicaceae
Where found
Open woodland, pastures, and moist situations. Tablelands, ACT, the mountains to the west, and Kosciuszko National Park. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced annual herb to 0.2 m high, base and rhizome woody. Stems sparsely or densely clothed in simple, branched or stellate hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves in a basal rosette, 0.2–2 cm long, margins entire or with a few shallow teeth. Flowering stem leafless. Flowers with 4 notched petals each 1.5–4 mm long, white or pink. Flowers in clusters.
subsp. verna: Hairs on stems and leaves always branched; seed cases 6–10 mm long, 1–2.5 mm wide, more than 2.5 times as long as broad, often with almost parallel sides
subsp. praecox: Hairs on stems and leaves mixed branched and unbranched; seed cases 3–10 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, less than 3 times as long as broad, sides always rounded
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Erophila~verna (accessed 14 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
